1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mounting information-collecting device, a connector, and a mounting information-collecting method, and more particularly, to a mounting information-collecting device for collecting mounting information concerning mounted statuses of respective circuit boards by using an optical signal, a connector for connecting each circuit board to a housing, and a mounting information-collecting method of collecting the mounting information concerning the mounted statuses of the respective circuit boards by using the optical signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a circuit board is received in a housing, faulty mounting of the circuit board can occur e.g. due to incomplete insertion of the same into the housing. Visual confirmation by human eyes is unreliable and ineffective in finding such faulty mounting of a circuit board. For this reason, there was proposed a device which is capable of detecting faulty mounting of a circuit board mechanically without resorting to human eyes alone for confirmation. FIG. 12 shows the arrangement of the conventional circuit board mounted status-detecting device. The conventional circuit board mounted status-detecting device 200 is comprised of a housing 201, circuit boards 202a to 202n, and a monitoring block 203.
The circuit boards 202a to 202n have respective connectors Cpa to Cpn arranged thereon, and the monitoring block 203 has a connector Cp arranged thereon. On the other hand, the housing 201 has connectors Cfa to Cfn and Cf arranged thereon in a manner corresponding to the respective connectors Cpa to Cpn and Cp. In FIG. 12, the monitoring block 203 has already been fitted into the housing 201.
The connectors Cpa to Cpn have respective contacts pa-1 to pn-1 connected to ground GND. On the other hand, the connectors Cfa to Cfn have respective contacts pa-2 to pn-2 corresponding to the contacts pa-1 to pn-1, and the contacts pa-2 to pn-2 are each pulled up by a resistor R within the monitoring block 203 via a corresponding one of signal lines Sa to Sn.
When the circuit boards 202a to 202n are fitted into the housing 201, the signal lines Sa to Sn are connected to ground GND via the contacts pa-1 to pn-1 and the contacts pa-2 to pn-2 connected respectively to each other.
Therefore, when the power is turned on after the circuit boards 202a to 202n are fitted into the housing 201, the voltage of each of the signal lines Sa to Sn arranged on a backboard of the housing 201 changes to a ground level (however, the voltage of a signal line on a portion of the housing 201 in which a circuit board is not mounted does not change to the ground level). The monitoring block 203 detects the voltage level of each of the signal lines Sa to Sn and determines, based on the detected voltage level, whether or not each of the circuit boards 202a to 202n is mounted.
However, in the above prior art, it is required to increase the number of signal lines Sa to Sn with an increase in the number of circuit boards to be mounted, which causes congestion of wiring on the backboard of the housing. Further, the number of input/output pins of a connector is limited, and hence the increase in the number of signal lines Sa to Sn results in shortage of pins of the connector of the monitoring block.
Moreover, in the prior art, although it is possible to detect whether or not a circuit board is mounted, when a mounted circuit board is suffering from a fault, it is impossible to locate the circuit board.
It is an object of the invention to provide a mounting information-collecting device which is capable of collecting mounting information concerning mounted statuses of circuit boards with high accuracy and efficiency.
It is another object of the invention to provide a connector for use in collecting mounting information concerning a mounted status of a circuit board with high accuracy and efficiency.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a mounting information-collecting method of collecting mounting information concerning mounted statuses of circuit boards with high accuracy and efficiency.
To attain the above first-mentioned object, according to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a mounting information-collecting device for collecting mounting information concerning mounted statuses of circuit boards by using an optical signal. The mounting information-collecting device is characterized by comprising light-emitting means that emits the optical signal, optical signal-processing means that applies processing to the optical signal in a manner unique to each of the circuit boards to thereby generate a processed optical signal, and mounting information-collecting means that receives the processed optical signal and detects whether or not the processing has been applied, to thereby collect the mounting information.
To attain the above second-mentioned object, according to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a connector for connecting a circuit board to a housing. The connector is characterized by comprising an optical filter constituted by a first optical filter portion for passing all wavelengths of an optical signal and a second optical filter portion for removing a particular wavelength specifically associated with the circuit board, an optical fiber-holding portion for holding a first optical fiber for guiding the optical signal and a second optical fiber for guiding the optical signal, such that an end face of the first optical fiber and an end face of the second optical fiber have points of contact with a light-receiving portion of the optical filter and a light-emitting portion of the optical filter, respectively, and a slider mechanism for sliding the optical filter in a front-rear direction in which the circuit board is movable, in accordance with mounting or demounting of the circuit board to or from the housing, to thereby change the points of contact.
To attain the above third-mentioned object, according to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided a mounting information-collecting method of collecting mounting information concerning mounted statuses of circuit boards by using an optical signal. The mounting information-collecting method is characterized by comprising the step of emitting the optical signal, applying processing to the optical signal in a manner unique to each of the circuit boards to thereby generate a processed optical signal, and receiving the processed optical signal and detecting whether or not the processing has been applied, to thereby collect the mounting information.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which illustrate preferred embodiments of the present invention by way of example.